So Gerry Kelly sued Malachi O’Doherty to restore his reputation. Really?
I vaguely remember listening to the Nolan Show back in 2019 when Malachi made the original comments about Gerry Kelly’s role in the 1983 prison escape from the Maze. Like most ordinary people, I didn’t bat an eyelash listening to his comments about Kelly.
It’s hardly breaking news that Kelly had a penchant for prison escapes and viewed physical force as a legitimate tool in achieving his goals. The average man on the Belfast Glider, won’t have given Malachi’s comments a second thought, or be any more or less inclined to vote for Gerry Kelly.
Of course, had Gerry Kelly wanted to correct the record and assert that he was criminally acquitted of shooting the prison officer he could have done so. Doubtless, the Nolan Show would have given the factual assertion the necessary airtime and Malachi would have concurred.
However, clearing up any confusion about Kelly’s moral stance on terrorism seems an unlikely motivation for his lawsuit. As Master Bell eloquently highlighted in his excoriating judgement, Gerry Kelly has never disassociated himself with terrorism, quite the opposite.
Now let me make it clear, lest I end up looking the wrong way down the barrel of a Kelly writ. Gerry Kelly is no longer engaged in terrorism and does not support dissident violence.
However, he has never said that the IRA’s violence of the past was wrong or that he was sorry for engaging in it. I reposted yesterday his tweet from 2020, about the very prison escape that was at the centre of his libel action. Kelly, despite being a senior member of the Policing Board, tweeted boastfully and playfully about unlawfully escaping from prison. A serious crime during which an innocent man was shot.
If Kelly was serious about protecting and rebuilding his reputation would he boast about such a thing? Of course not, no reasonable person would, let alone one on a policing accountability body.
Master Bell was satisfied that Kelly actually wanted to silence a critical voice. But the chill factor goes further than the recipient of any one law suit. There is huge apprehension across the board when it comes to critiquing Sinn Fein, because they have both the means and the will to litigate. This is unhealthy for democracy and the fundamental freedoms in our society.
I saw Sinn Féin’s ability to lobby, pressure and unduly influence at first hand in the PSNI. The reaction to an arrest of one of their own for a Troubles related case was vociferous and coordinated, whether it was the arrest of Gerry Adams in 2014 or any other ‘good republican’ for that matter.
The response was always predictable and well coordinated. A script was repeated up and down the country to police officers on the ground or at community meetings, lambasting the ‘dark side’ of policing and ‘sinister elements opposed to the peace process’. The consistent message was that the arrested republican had worked for peace and to even interview him or her under caution was an attack on the peace process. Yet the same party now opposes the Legacy Act.
You might recall Bobby Storey bellowing to loud applause after the arrest of Gerry Adams, ‘How dare they touch our party leader, the leader of Irish republicanism”! The sense of entitlement is plain to see and doubtless such vociferous reactions were intended to make PSNI leaders wary of poking the republican bear by making further arrests.
The sense of entitlement was also plain for all to see at the Bobby Storey funeral. Everyone else restricted funerals to a handful of family, but thousands lined the streets to see off Big Bobby.
Mr Kelly was the Sinn Fein liaison with the senior police commander for the funeral planning. It was Mr Kelly, a member of the Policing Board, who astonishingly thought it ok to ring the Deputy Chief Constable after the arrest of a man on the Ormeau Road on the 5th February 2021 and say he should be immediately released.
The man never saw the inside of the custody suite and the arresting officer was unlawfully suspended, which according to the notes of the last Chief Constable, was at Sinn Féin’s behest.
The fear of a Sinn Fein hissy fit, whether it be lawsuit against a journalist or attacks on honest policing have stifled the normal operation of our democracy. It’s the things that are not reported about or not actioned because of this omnipresent fear that are most concerning.
An honourable journalist should be able to speak honestly without worrying about every word lest he or she is sued. A junior police officer should be able to arrest someone for disorderly behaviour and breaching Covid rules without a high level campaign to suspend them being launched. Everyone should be able to use social media without the vicious pile on’s from republican trolls when they say anything critical of Sinn Fein.
I’ve no doubt Malachi endured some sleepless nights over the past few years, he had a lot of skin in the game as they say. However, if he has made Sinn Fein think twice about their quickness to sue and hastened an overdue change in our libel laws, he will have done a service to democracy in Northern Ireland.
I stood in uniform outside the Guildhall in Derry on the 15th June 2010, watching a giant TV screen surrounded by hundreds of people when the then Prime Minister David Cameron, gave his reaction to the Saville Report. “What happened on Bloody Sunday was unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong”. Words matter and the atmosphere changed.
If Mr Kelly really wants to rehabilitate his reputation, he should say the same about the IRA’s campaign of terror and his role in it. Moral leadership is more redemptive than strategic lawsuits, and a lot easier on the pocket too.
Regret for one’s victims and repentance for one’s actions are two very different things.
Burrows Blog 